Synthesis gas is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which is formed from methane reforming and has a variety of different applications in organic reactions. This can be formed by combining steam and oxygen with methane at high temperatures. Another method of forming synthesis gas from methane is the methane dry reforming reaction. In this reaction, carbon dioxide is mixed with methane and the blend is subjected to high temperature i.e., 850° C. in the presence of a catalyst. This in turn forms hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The hydrogen from the reforming process is particularly suitable for use in fuel cell power systems.
The typical catalyst for use in the methane dry reforming reaction is a noble metal such as gold, platinum or the like. However, these catalysts tend to be relatively expensive. Molybdenum carbide is known as a catalyst for such reaction. However, this can be difficult to form. Further for use as a catalyst, high surface area is critical. Molybdenum carbide tends to form larger grains having reduced surface areas which in turn reduces its effectiveness as a catalyst. Thus, because of this problem and the high temperature and time required to form molybdenum carbide, it has not been used commercially as a catalyst for the methane dry reforming reaction.
Synthesis gas, mainly a mixture of H2 and CO, may also contain CO2, can be a cheap and easy to obtain fuel for fuel cells. However, CO in the synthesis gas can poison the expensive fuel cell catalyst. Therefore, it has to be removed from the synthesis gas before the gas is used for fuel cells. Low temperature water gas shift (WGS) reaction converts CO into CO2, a harmless gas for the fuel cell catalyst. Additional benefit from the low temperature WGS is that it also generates H2. It can be seen that WGS reaction could have a significant potential in the fuel cell technology.